The Australian Songwriter

Issue 104, October 2014

First published 1979

The Magazine of The Australian Songwriters Association Inc.

In this edition:

Chairman’s Message

Editor’s Message

2014 National Songwriting Awards Night

ASA Member Profile: Jill Riddiford

ASA Member Profile: Fiona Karamanlidis

Interview: Graeme Connors

Composing With Loops and Samples: Saara Lamberg

Songwriters Block: What Do Berklee And James Linderman Say?

Sponsors Profiles

Songwriters Fighting Fund

ASA Member Profile: Glen Naylor

ASA Member Profile: Steve McNaughton

Members News and Information (including 2014 Australian Songwriting Contest update)

The Load Out

Official Sponsors of the Australian Songwriting Contest

About Us:

o Aims of the ASA o History of the Association o Contact Us o Patron o Life Members o Directors o Regional Co-Ordinators

1 Chairman’s Message

Hey All,

Isn’t this just about the most awesome time of the year?

All entries for the 2014 Competition are now in the hands of the Judges, and pretty soon the ASA will be publishing the long awaited ‘SHORTLIST’.

Throughout the last month, my fellow Directors and I have overheard snippets of songs as the Judges began the huge task of going through all the entries to whittle them down. We have all ended up excited and anticipating a bumper year from what has come to light so far. Each and every year the standard of songwriting just seems to improve, and it is a matter of contentment for me personally, to know that amongst our ASA Members we definitely have some of the best Songwriters in the country. Roll on November!

Also, this month I want to direct all Members to our Regional Coordinators page. We now have RCs in every State and lots of regional areas as well. The only Capital City we are not represented in is Darwin, and I hope that can be rectified when I visit the Northern Territory on business this month. The ASA RCs are all doing fantastic things for our Members, so don’t forget to support them at the Wax Lyricals.

In the meantime, whet your appetite by reading this month’s eNewsletter, excellently edited as usual by your Vice Chairman Alan Gilmour. Alan puts a great deal of time and energy into the magazine, and the result always brings forth an entertaining and informative missive.

Cheers

Denny Burgess Chairman

Editor’s Message

Welcome to the October edition of The Australian Songwriter. In this edition we feature interviews with Graeme Connors and Saara Lamberg as well as ASA member profiles on Jill Riddiford, Fiona Karamanlidis, Glen Naylor and Steve McNaughton.

The Australian Songwriter welcomes written contributions from ASA members and readers of the magazine. If you have anything that you would like to say about yourself, other songwriters/musicians/artists/new releases or upcoming events, simply send your contribution via email to the Editor at [email protected].

Cheers

Alan Gilmour

2 2014 National Songwriting Awards Night

Australian singer/songwriters, Kate Ceberano and Ross Ryan will be Special Guest Artists at the 2014 National Songwriting Awards Night.

The 2014 National Songwriting Awards Night will be held on Monday 24 November 2014 at The Wests Ashfield Club, 115 Liverpool Road, Ashfield NSW 2131, commencing at 6.30 pm for 7.00 pm. Dinner and drinks will be provided.

The Awards Night will feature:

 The induction of Kate Ceberano into The Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame, followed by a performance by Kate and her band.

 An on-stage interview and performance by legendary Australian singer/songwriter, Ross Ryan. Ross is currently celebrating the 40th anniversary of his 1974 hit song, “I Am Pegasus”.

 The announcement of the 2014 APRA/ASA Australian Songwriter of the Year.

 The announcement of the 2014 winner of The Rudy Brandsma Award for Songwriting Excellence.

 The announcement of the Top 10 Category winners in the 2014 Australian Songwriting Contest and performances by the winners of each Category.

Tickets are available from the ASA National Office on [email protected].

3 ASA Member Profile: Jill Riddiford

Jill Riddiford (a.k.a Rollerblue) is a Sydney based singer and songwriter. She has written poetry and stories from an early age, but it has only been in recent years that she has combined this talent, with her life-long love of music, into songwriting.

Describing her work as “Music from the soul for living and exploring”, the source of inspiration for many of her songs is travel experiences and chance conversations. She writes across a wide range of genres.

Listeners of Jill’s music have often commented on the catchy melodies and beats. Descriptions have included: “melodic”, “feel good”, “rhythmic” and “sophisticated”.

Jill released her debut album, “Homecoming”, with ten original songs, in May 2011, followed by five singles. Her second album, “The Summer Project”, followed in November 2013.

Nine of her tracks have reached the finals or have been shortlisted in International and Australian song competitions.

ASA: Jill, would you please tell us why you call your music “Music from the soul for living and exploring”?

Jill: Many of my songs were inspired by travel experiences (both overseas and local) or come from reflecting on an earlier experience while travelling. I find that being in unfamiliar surroundings is always good for the creative process, anyway.

A number of other songs came out of inward journeys- daydreams and dreams- part of the ongoing quest we all have to make sense of life. So there is this ethereal quality to a lot of my songs, I think, which a few people have commented on.

ASA: Why did you come to music composition after being involved in writing poetry and stories for so long?

Jill: Music was always a thread running through my life, although I don’t come from a musical family. My earliest music memory was humming tunes while on a swing when I was about nine. Then, growing up, there was this intense emotion around music which never really left me, but for the most part it was in the background.

4 I was always writing poems and I even wrote one about music. I have just retrieved it now. It was pretty bad, though one line “[music] fills in the spaces that experience leaves” may be alright, then again!

Fast forward to about seven years ago, and I started doing some singing and spending time with musically inclined people, and suddenly had “the moment”, where I knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and the songs started to tumble out.

I was worried for a while that the ideas would dry up but it hasn’t happened yet.

ASA: What do you think differentiates your music from other people's music?

Jill: That’s probably more for other people to say. I don’t try to write in a particular style. I have had comments like “inspiring” and “poetic” and “themes that most people can relate to”. So yes, my music does seem to be on the deep and meaningful side! Also when I write, it often starts with a phrase of lyrics and melody together, and then the whole song builds from that.

There’s this great line in the movie, “The Words”, which says “At some point, you have to choose between life and fiction. The two are very close but they never actually touch”. I think a lot of my songs flow through that narrow channel between imagination and reality.

ASA: What is the best thing about songwriting, for you?

Jill: One of the best things about songwriting is when you find out that someone has been influenced by something that you wrote. So for example, when I get a new fan on internet radio, or they make a comment, and I think that maybe they have played one of my songs more than once because something resonated with them. That feeling is just amazing!

ASA: What are your plans for the future? Where are you hoping that music will take you?

Jill: I want to keep writing, get better at it, and work more with other musicians. And I’d like more people to hear my songs. I’ve had some interest from publishers but nothing concrete has eventuated yet, so it would be great to have some licensing deals happen, or for some songs to be covered by a major artist. But meanwhile on the reality side, I’m really enjoying how my music is evolving.

5 ASA Member Profile: Fiona Karamanlidis

Fiona Karamanlidis is a multi award-winning, independent songwriter, composer, producer and pianist from Adelaide, South Australia.

Fiona has received numerous awards in various musical genres from professional music industry organisations since 2005.

These include the Australian Songwriters Association, Songwriters Composers & Lyricists Association of South Australia and the South Australian Country Music Association. Fiona was a Finalist in the 2013 MusicOz Australian Independent Music Awards and the Tamworth Songwriters Association National Songwriting Competition in 2014.

Fiona's Musical Styles are very diverse, and include Adult Contemporary Pop, R&B, Country, Jazz, Ballads, Gothic Rock Ballads, Classic Rock, Electronica and Instrumental. Fiona's songs can be described as eclectic, unique, atmospheric, haunting, emotive, with a touch of the mystic, creating a perfect ambience for Television and Motion Picture soundtracks.

Fiona sourced some emerging and very talented local singers and musicians to work on her songwriting projects, notably including Trevor Warner (Australian Bluegrass Pioneer & father of Kym Warner, founding member of successful US Bluegrass band, The Greencards) and Rob Chenoweth (Adelaide-based trumpeter, who has worked with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles and Kenny Rogers).

Together with these talented musicians, Fiona wrote, co-produced and performed on her debut CD, "Kismet", which was released in 2005.

Two professionally recorded demo EP's are being completed in 2014: "From Out of Nowhere", featuring Country songs, and "WinterSong", a compilation of Jazz, soulful Ballads, a traditional Celtic Ballad and Gothic Rock.

ASA: Fiona, what is your interest in writing and recording in such a wide range of genres?

Fiona: Being a songwriter, as opposed to a singer-songwriter, I am free in a way to explore different genres. I don't need to restrict myself to any particular style to form a "brand". I appreciate all forms of music from Chopin, Ravi Shankar, Miles Davis, native American drumming, to 80's pop. It’s all about a good rhythm, melody

6 or a catchy hook. When I write songs, I literally hear the melody and full instrumentation in my head. I think this comes from being open to and interested in all styles of music.

ASA: How, for example, do you move between genres as diverse as Contemporary Pop and Gothic Rock ballads?

Fiona: Whatever the song requires, in terms of genre, it will speak to me when I hear the melody in my head. That sounds very esoteric, but that's how it rolls for me.

ASA: Can you tell us a bit about the demo EPs that you are finalising in 2014? Will they be available for public purchase?

Fiona: I have completed the mastering for two EP's. I have written and recorded eight songs. Like my first project "Kismet" from 2005, it has diversity. So I decided to put the three country songs on one mini EP which is called "From Out of Nowhere". Four of the tracks include jazz, gothic rock ballad, a contemporary R&B-influenced power ballad and a contemporary ballad.

This EP is called "WinterSong". It is piano-based, with a haunting theme and a touch of gothic running though it. I was so blessed to have exceptional musicians play on my jazz song, "Painting Colours". Rob Chenoweth, (who has performed with Jerry Lee Lewis, Kenny Rogers, Ray Charles & the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra), played Harmon mute trumpet, and Charmaine Jones, a fantastic, well-known Adelaide jazz singer, performed the vocals. I played piano on all my tracks.

The remaining song is a traditional Celtic song called "The Bells of St Buryan". I wrote it after I found out, fairly recently, that my maternal ancestral roots were based in St Buryan, Cornwall. I had always been drawn to the ocean, castles, history and esoteric subjects, so it seemed befitting to pay homage to this and my ancestors. This song was played at the Copper Coast Cornish Festival (the Kernewek Lowender) in South Australia in 2013. It was also nominated for Song of the Year - Traditional Vocal - in the 2014 Australian Celtic Music Awards. However, I thought this song might be out of place, so I'm going to leave it off this EP. However, it is on my website. Both EP's will be available via www.fkara.com.au.

ASA: Where are you hoping that your music will take you?

Fiona: My music is adult contemporary. I am totally realistic about the state of the music business these days and I am not expecting to give up my day job. However, I believe that there is a place in the world for them.

I am hoping that when people hear my music they will enjoy it and it will take them to a nice place for a while. Or they can get up and have a little dance to "If It's Not Meant to Be", a traditional country based fun tune!! I would ideally like my music placed in TV or Motion Pictures as I believe that is where the songs are best suited. I

7 am also searching for an upcoming female artist who needs original material to perform live and/or record.

ASA: How did you find the beautiful artwork for the WinterSong album?

Fiona: I had been searching for artwork online to purchase for the cover of "WinterSong". I had in mind an abstract painting with red, black and white shapes with a dark gothic fairy. This was no easy task as I found out. So I reprogrammed my thoughts and looked outside the square.

I narrowed my search down to six pictures, and so after choosing a particular piece, I contacted the artist, based in San Diego, California, to seek his permission. After some to and fro email conversations, he agreed and we co-signed an agreement. I then checked out his story just as a matter of personal interest and what I found out astounded me.

In another life, John Francis Peters worked as a promoter, producer and mixer, working with iconic artists and musicians such as Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, Status Quo, Rob Stoner (bassist on American Pie) and Howie Wyeth (drums), both from Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue, and Ken Caillat (Producer, "Rumors" by Fleetwood Mac), just to name a few. John also worked for the Wartoke Concern, New York (public relations firm for The Woodstock Festival).

In 1976, John mixed Don McLean's "Solo" Live double album. He then went on to produce "Prime Time" (1977) by Don McLean.

John had this to say about my songs: "I've been listening to your work...Excellent, beautiful, and you took me away....perfect" "...I'm honored to be on your CD..." (September 11, 2014)

John's striking watercolour painting "Winter Woods" (above) will appear on the cover of the forthcoming EP, "WinterSong".

To see more of John's stunning artwork and read about his amazing life journey, visit www.johnfpeters.com.

8 Interview: Graeme Connors

Graeme Connors grew up and attended school in Mackay, and it’s there, in Northern Queensland, that the beginning of what has become a long fruitful career began. It was there, at age 13, Graeme was given a gift of a guitar.

He began listening to the radio and practicing chords and rewriting lyrics to current songs. He had caught the “music bug” by age 14 he had his own band. “Music does provide such a wonderful outlet for a young person.”

It was in the mid-1970s that Graeme commenced his music career “as we now know it”, performing support vocals for many well-known acts of the day, including Sherbet and Kris Kristofferson. He eventually recorded his first album called “And When Morning Comes”, which was produced by Kris Kristofferson and received many good reviews.

During the late-1970s, through to the late-1980s, Graeme wrote songs that became big hits for Slim Dusty, John Denver and Jon English. He spent the first half of the 1980s writing songs based on truck driving, which became hits for Slim Dusty, including "I'm Married To My Bulldog Mack" and "Dieseline Dreams". The Jon English big hit, “Hot Town”, was also written by Graeme.

In 1988, Graeme recorded and released his breakthrough single, "A Little Further North", which was to be featured on his first album, "North", on the Australian ABC Records label. It was a song that was so successful that John Denver covered it. Subsequent singles followed, including "Let The Canefields Burn", "Cyclone Season", "Sicilian Born" and "A Heartache (Or Two)". "North" remains one of the best-selling Australian country albums of all time.

9 In 1989, Slim Dusty achieved Song of the Year with Graeme’s song, “We’ve Done Us Proud”. Graeme later recorded it himself. Another of the highlights of Graeme’s career came in 2000, when he wrote and performed the inspirational song, “Being There”, which was to become the anthem of the Paralympics Games. Graeme appeared in both the opening and closing ceremonies.

As a musician, Graeme has never been easy to pigeonhole, and although he never set out to make country music specifically, he is often dubbed a country and coastal artist. With honest stories that captured the imagination of the heartland music lovers, he quickly became embraced by country music fans and musicians alike. Graeme’s diverse and skilfully written songs move effortlessly across genres, ranging from folk, pop and country.

Perhaps he could be dubbed Australia’s answer to Jimmy Buffet, with maybe a dash of James Taylor tossed in, but regardless of what comparisons are made, Graeme is certainly one of Australia’s finest most prolific songwriters.

Over the past few years, Graeme Connors has moved away from the Australian musical landscapes for which he is so well known, in songs such as “A Little Further North”, “Cyclone Season” and “Let the Canefields Burn”. He has headed more into the hidden territory of the heart, and with his genuine sensitivity, he is more than qualified to pen the most sentimental love song and heartfelt ballad such as the song “Love Works”.

Graeme celebrated 40 years in the music business in 2013. His 18 albums have earned him 14 Golden Guitars, an ARIA award, two APRA songwriting awards, two American Song Festival Awards, two MO Awards for live performance, 12 Tamworth Songwriters Association Awards and a prestigious Songmaker accolade for his contribution to Australian songwriting. He has received the Centenary Medal in recognition of distinguished contribution to the entertainment industry and is a Rotary Foundation Paul Harris Fellow. He was also featured in the exceptional, and high-rating, ABC TV documentary series, Heart of Country.

The North album came along at a low point in Graeme’s career, when failure seemed imminent. At that time he was working as a producer and had pretty much stopped writing. “Prior to North, I think I was trying too hard to capture the market by writing what I thought people wanted to hear”, he has admitted, “whereas North was what I wanted to hear.”

10 Being such a prolific songwriter, Graeme has had little need to do covers. However, he made an exception in 2013, by releasing his album, “Kindred Spirit”.

The album features songs by some of the singer/ songwriters that he admires, including Shane Howard, Brian Cadd, Paul Kelly, Allan Caswell and Richard Clapton. The album came about with the encouragement and collaboration from friend and music industry legend, Glen A Baker, and trusted producer, Matt Fell. It is more a tribute album than a covers album, upon which Graeme has put his own interpretation on the songs.

ASA: Graeme, a lot of your songs, such as A Little Further North, Cyclone Season and Let The Cane Fields Burn are themed on Far North Queensland. How did the environment in which you grew up affect your songwriting?

Graeme: I think I turned a corner somewhere back in the early to mid-80s, when I took on the sense that you really need to use the environment you are in, to tell the stories, instead of just creating something that is purely a gift of the imagination. I tried to ground my work in my community, if you know what I mean, to make it not only real to me, but to grab the images and use them.

It came about when I read an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, called “Self-Reliance”, and a big light went on in my head, and all these strands came together. I was also a big fan of Mark Twain, and how he made the Mississippi a universal place. Somehow I just went “oh well, here I am, sitting here in Sydney, trying to write anything to get cut, when surely the social responsibility of a writer is to create work that has meaning and value not only to yourself as an artist, but to the community that understands you”. It was right then that things started to change.

I remember the turning point, because I went out and bought a whole heap of Bushwhacker’s records. They were the only guiding light in that period of uniquely Australian work. Then there was Red Gum and then John Williamson came through. I didn’t connect with John as much as with some of the others, because he had a unique Mallee experience, and I didn’t feel connected to that. But I did have a sense of historicity with the songs that the Bushies were doing. They were doing old historic, revamped and revitalised Australian pieces.

I am getting off the topic, but somewhere along there, I remember just starting to write songs out of my own life, and “Mango Shade” was probably the first. It was clearly a thinly disguised song about the hometown, and about being away from it, and that sense of homesickness. And then the flood gates sort of opened up. I started writing “The Metho Man”. I had been telling my kids a story about my childhood in the tropics, and I remembered about the Metho Man. We were living in

11 Sydney at the time, and we had three and half boys, or it might even have been four at that time, and I was telling them these stories, and so the songs became just logical extensions of that. But all these stories are re-imagined aren’t they? It’s not like being a journalist, who is writing it down as it happened, it’s that beautiful thing that creativity gives you, the ability to re- imagine and have the outcome you want.

ASA: You take a strand of truth and weave a whole story around it, can’t you?

Graeme: That’s right, and it’s a very pleasurable thing to do. It’s the storyteller in me. I was always a great admirer of Harry Chapin, and to a lesser extent Jimmy Buffett, Randy Newman and John Prior. These were the type of people I connected with, but I thought I was writing for the market, and trying to second guess the next hit song.

In Australia, particularly at that time, we didn’t have a great tradition of storytelling in music. We did a lot of rock and pop, and it was all about fleeting emotions, rather than a progressive lyric that started somewhere and worked its way through an experience, to reach an end.

So I felt that prior to me giving up on all of that, it was just a waste of time and a waste of my energy, because I really did like telling stories and creating characters, but it was a different form of writing than what was successful. The Countdown Years were about great pop songs, but they weren’t story songs. We didn’t have anyone in Australia that was of the calibre of Harry Chapin, telling the long Taxi story, or anything like that.

ASA: So, did you feel that you became your “real” self at that time?

Graeme: Yes, at 33 years of age. It took me 33 bloody years! Jesus died at 33 and I was just starting (laughs)!

ASA: So, here you are, now writing songs from your personal experiences and from your heart?

Graeme: Well yes, but bear in mind, not a whole heap. A lot of people assume there were more, because there were a couple of hits among them, such as “Hot Town” by John English, which was written by me before me finding my feet. However, “We’ve Done Us Proud” was written during my change of course. I really wrote “We’ve Done Us Proud” for Slim. Slim was the character to sing the song. He was the Bicentennial Man. He rang me looking for a song, and I know how to do that, how to step into character, and it was worth it to do it for Slim, because I admired the man. But the chanciness of just writing a song to just plug a hole somewhere was a waste of time as far as I was concerned, and to this day I still feel the same way.

12

If you are writing for yourself it’s an honourable pastime. You don’t expect to make a fortune out of it, but it is a good thing to do to be creative, and who knows what the outcome will be. But if you are chasing the market place, trying to create songs for other people, it’s extremely hazardous, and I don’t know whether if it’s worth it, even from the financial aspects. In the world we live in these days, the producer wants a cut, the artist wants a cut and the songwriter gets forced into being a sort of a hack.

ASA: Just a tradesman?

Graeme: Yes, that’s right. You end up just cranking it out.

ASA: In relation to Slim, do you think he understood your songs in his performance?

Graeme: Yeah, I think Slim got it. I wrote “I’m Married To My Bulldog Mack” for him. That was the first one recorded, but “Diesel In Dreams”, I think, was the transition in our relationship. I wrote that song alone. That was really my song and I gave it to him, whereas most other songs that I wrote for Slim were Graeme Connors writing specifically for the man, and the storyteller he was, so it had a slant. I admired the man. He was resilient, he stayed the course, and he had all those attributes that you would like to think you have yourself, such as endurance.

ASA: And, when John Denver sang “A Little Further North”, do you think he really understood the Australian concept of travelling north for holidays and retirement?

Graeme: I think he just took it as a metaphor. He apparently heard the song when he was on White Haven Beach with his new Australian bride, and from what I gather, John was an extremely passionate man. He wore his heart on his sleeve and he was up there on a boat and on the radio comes “A Little Further North”, and there he was, in this pristine natural environment, which of course was what he loved. He was with the new love of his life that he was utterly besotted with, he hears the song, and I think the whole metaphor of an easier and better time was what stung him. He just said to himself “I am going to record that song”. He didn’t even contact me. I didn’t even know anything about it until it was done. There was no pitching involved. Whoever the wonderful DJ was that played it on the radio that day, I owe him!

I think the gift of that song for me was that my North was also my home, and it was me heading back to Mackay. It had the tropical connotations that I was heavily embedded in, and it was telling the story of my life and my community in song, and it all pulled together nicely. At that time, there was a cultural and economic shift with people in Tasmania, Victoria and NSW that said “I’m not happy where I am so I’m heading north”, so it really coincided with that, and that’s a good fortune that happens once in a while. It coincided with this wonderful movement where all of a sudden Queensland (post Jo) boomed, there was a bit of a mining thing going on, but it was more than that, it was the thought of less clothing, sunshine, blue skies and getting away from the hustle and bustle. It’s an intriguing situation, isn’t it? Now, I hear the next change that is going on with north movements, is that retirees are moving to South East Asia to live, because of economic choices.

13 ASA: You have picked up a lot of awards during your career. Do you feel that’s a justification for the way that you decided to approach your music?

Graeme: Alan, awards come so far apart that you have generally moved on to something else by the time one comes around. You know what? It is a boost in your confidence, getting an award from your peers and the industry you are part of. It’s an accolade that sort of says “keep going, keep pushing forward and that’s really the worth of an award”. And it’s especially true when a songwriter has been struggling for years to gain acceptance. The first awards that come through can be incredibly invigorating, because it says that the struggle has been worth it, so go on, keep going and do something better.

The embarrassing thing about awards from my perspective, in a small country like Australia, is that they are never distributed widely enough. You will go to the ARIAs and there will be an Artist or a Band that will win everything, you know what I mean! It’s as if “Quick, these are the noisemakers of the year, give them everything”!

You and I both know the key to that one. It’s hard work and endurance and finding your own voice and all those things. Let’s be frank, there is a whole generation who don’t want to do that. They see the music industry as a step into the real estate game or whatever you want to call it, but then you’ve got the majors who are sick and tired of artists, and I not being nasty, but the Denis Handlins, and people like that, if they are with you they are with you a 100%, if they are against you, you’re out, and Denis is an incredibly powerful player, as is Michael Gudinski, and if they are determined that an artist of theirs is going to succeed, then trust me, they know every lever to pull at the appropriate time to ensure that the votes fall their way. I’m not being a cynic, they are just smart enough, and powerful enough, to know the voting panel and send them all the stuff they need to be sent, to prove that their act is the one that is going to be the big act of the year.

For a career artist, awards may come, and if you are lucky enough, the last award you get is the entry into the Hall of Fame for your endurance! And then people say “My God has he been around that long”.

Alan, you might have got the drift that I am not losing sleep if I’m not getting awards. I am very delighted when I get awards, but they are certainly held in their proper perspective.

ASA: Can we talk about your album “Kindred Spirit”? What inspired you to record a collection of other songwriters’ songs?

Graeme: You know this is going to sound. I don’t really know how it’s going to sound, but I had become just sick and tired of listening to young artists making

14 records where they wrote every song themselves or co-wrote with a producer, and the songs were just not good enough. I wanted to send out a message to fellow artists and songwriters that there is a wealth of great material around if you are prepared to do the digging, and find the songs that match your personality, and your image.

We are living in a time that when a song is six months old, it’s finished, and that’s nonsense. A great song is a great song, it’s timeless. And there is a scattering of prior hits and songs that have not been recorded. These songs on the album are all by writers I admire, but I also wanted to put a message out there. I have made a career with seventeen CDs, and “Kindred Spirit” is the only time I have stepped outside and made a whole record of other people’s songs. There have been occasional songs that I have just loved so much that I have wanted to record them, but I have plenty to say myself, and I built my career on the Graeme Connors story, so I wanted to take this chance to say “listen to these great songs by these great writers and there are more out there.” I could go back and do Volume Two!

Now that’s just for me, there are young female and male artists who could be sifting through the Australian songwriting cannon, and finding absolute gems that weren’t even singles. Most of the songs I cut, you’ll notice, weren’t even singles in their heyday. There are other songs, like the Kevin Johnson song. When I found it, I couldn’t believe what a gem it was. Kevin, to his great credit, rang me up and said “man, thank you”. But Matt Fell is the man we should be thanking, because Matt did a wonderful job of producing, and it was so beautiful, because Matt didn’t know these songs. Matt would only be about forty and a lot of these songs wouldn’t have come up on his radar: Kevin Johnson, Broderick Smith, John Francis.

It was funny when Matt heard “Play Mumma Play”. He said “what a great song”, and it is! Put in the hands of someone as creative as Matt, it has really revitalised the song. I went in with an acoustic guitar and played him the song, that’s how I took it to him, I thought “blow it, I am not going to play him the original demos because it can alter the way you produce”, so the idea was to go in with an acoustic and play him the songs as though I had written them myself. These songs can stand on their own two feet, so there is no need for me to do anymore. Songs like “Dotted Line”, the Brian Cadd and Andy McDonnell one, I had heard that years and years ago. It was always one of those songs in the back of your mind. If you are a songwriter you really can’t help but store away a bunch of reference points, and a lot of these songs for me were reference points. It was also great being able to do a Brian Baker song. Brian was someone I had admired for years. Brian had never had a hit song anywhere, but he was so dam close. He is such a talented writer, it’s just finding the song that suits you.

ASA: And where to from here for Graeme Connors?

Graeme: I am happiest when I am writing. I am living better when I am actually writing and making records the way I have over the years. “Kindred Spirit Two” will eventually happen I am sure, because it was such a pleasure to do it. It was such an easy record to make, it was really just a case of Matt produced and I selected the songs, and brought them in and sang them, and what a classic way to make a record. You understand why a lot of the older artists had such a massive catalogue, because they did it that way. When they died, they had another twenty tracks up their sleeve to keep releasing posthumously.

15 I do have a couple of things on my radar at the moment, and one of them I would really like for it to happen. I have been toying with an extended form for some time and it would be a real challenge for my storytelling, it’s something that would be seen as a theatrical event, where there’s a thread, a story, a book, where there’s a line that runs through, and the songs are subservient to a creation of characters. That’s the sort of thing I mean. I am chipping away at that mountain constantly and that’s really hard work I understand why Rogers and Hammerstein took so long to put a musical together, it’s not an easy task, and I am in the position that I don’t even have a book, so I have to create most of that myself.

ASA: The great Australian story?

Graeme: Well yes! I have already got a title for it, and it is exciting moving towards it, and in the meantime I wake up in the morning and have an idea for a song that doesn’t belong anywhere other than in its own world. There’s that wonderful theory, that if you are not sitting at your desk when a song goes by and you don’t grab it there and then it will turn up at someone else’s desk down the road.

ASA: Lastly Graeme, can I ask you for any comments that you would like to give the up-and-coming songwriters out there?

Graeme: Firstly, and from my perspective, even though it’s not a rule, but at least try to make it an aim, “you have got to work every single day”. I don’t care if its half an hour every day, because there no point saving it up for Sunday and having a writing day for twenty four hours. That won’t be near as much benefit as getting up every morning and writing, or even before going to bed at night. It doesn’t matter which, but try and allocate ninety minutes a day, that’s a reasonable amount of time.

I wrote the whole of the album, “North”, in ninety minute segments between 5.30 and 7.00 in the morning, while running a full time job, so it can be done. If you are a songwriter, you have got to write songs, and you have got to do it every day. It may sound like a joke to say songs are floating past the window, but let me tell you, that’s the attitude you need to have, that there’s something out there waiting to be said or sung. There will be songs that can be ripped up and thrown away. There will be songs you can put in the bottom drawer. But there are also songs that you will immediately know that you want to go in and record. As an artist, you have just got to hear this song. You have got to, and need to, build yourself a catalogue, block by block. You have got to create a series of works, and you can only do it well if you do it every day.

ASA: Thank you very much for your time, Graeme.

Graeme: Good on you, thanks, Alan. I think it’s fantastic what you are doing to keep that sense of community among songwriters. I know sometimes I really feel the need to do that and other times I feel it’s great to be outside of it all together. It’s a double edge sword, sometimes you get in and talk too much about songs and you don’t do any writing!

Thanks to Carole Beck for arranging and transcribing this interview.

16 Composing With Loops and Samples: Saara Lamberg

The name, “Saara Lamberg”, is one to watch out for. This multi-faceted performer has so many strings to her bow that it’s hard to pinpoint just where her talent begins, and just how and where it will end up.

Saara was born in Helsinki, Finland, where she started her career at the very early age of three, performing in a Finnish folk music and dance group.

Saara's mother was also a keen amateur actress and took Saara along to rehearsals. However, Saara was not content to watch others act from backstage, so at the tender young age of seven she made her theatre debut in Shakespeare's 'The Tempest', in 1990. Saara then attended several youngsters’ theatre courses and productions and performed and directed theatre in the schools she went to. At eighteen she graduated from Kallio College of Performing Arts, Helsinki.

Saara wanted to broaden her skills as a performer both in theatre and media, so she studied radio and television performance in Helsinki at Radio Mafia “the Finnish broadcasting company” as well as other television, film and video productions

In between studying and working in Finland, she lived and worked abroad, and participated in several international conferences and courses. Saara also found time to spend three months in India in an ashram and received a Yoga teacher’s certificate.

She lived in England and studied in the critically acclaimed Dartington College of Arts, graduating with a BA (HONS) degree in Theatre and Choreographic Practices in 2007.

Saara has appeared in films, theatre and television in London, Paris, Brussels, Helsinki, USA and Qatar. She has received several awards for her work, including Bronze prize at the Beverly Hills screenplay contest.

The film, “Candy Cravings”, which Saara wrote, produced and starred in, won a best music award. A year later the film is still receiving invitations to new festivals and has already been to Toronto, San Francisco, Berlin and many others.

Whilst many Australian actors seek to further their career by travelling to far flung shores such as America, Saara made a reverse pilgrimage in a bold and courageous attempt to make Australia her home and the place she chose to continue her career and forge a place for her creativity.

17 Saara moved to Melbourne in January 2010 and received a Distinguished Talent Permanent Residency in 2012. She became a pioneer in a new 'Artist in Residence' program in Australia's oldest artist colony, ‘Montsalvat’ in Melbourne.

In 2014, Saara went on to receive her Australian citizenship.

Photo by Mark Hillyer

In Australia’ she has appeared in The Underbelly Files, independent features and short films. She played Raptor, the heroine in the world first interactive zombie game experience. In March 2014, Saara won Best Actor award for her role in ‘Fairy Tale’ at the Melbourne Comfy Shorts Film Festival. The film also won Best Film.

Though Saara may be best known within the film and theatre industry as an actress with numerous awards to her name, and while most artists would be content to achieve success in one spectrum, not this lady!

It seems her creativity cannot be restricted to just one element of the entertainment world. This being so, she has recently extended her talent to include composing music. Saara’s music is different from what would be considered main stream, with the aid of technology she is cleverly constructing her own unique style and sound.

ASA: Saara, Would you tell us a little about your songwriting process?

Saara: My song writing process always starts with the idea for the melody. Lyrics are very important to me, and they often arrive before or simultaneously with the melody. Before I composed my own songs, I collaborated with a British musician Gabriel Collins, providing lyrics for his compositions. Having said that, not all my songs have extensive lyrics, in fact many of them are very simple, even just one sentence.

I like symbolism and layers, I believe just a few suggestions can open up new ways of thinking. It's just one idea you need and it may be abstract. A word can tell a thousand pictures. English is not my mother tongue, but Finnish, which adds complexity to my work. Having lived in England and Australia the last eight years, most of my songs are now in English. (I received a distinguished talent permanent residency in Australia two years ago and went on to becoming a citizen this year.)

All my songs first live in my head, and I often record the ideas quickly with any small recorder, often my mobile phone as that is something I carry around with me at all times. You might see me in a bus or a train, singing ever so softly somewhere in the corner, as I don't want to draw attention when putting ideas down, but I need to get them recorded before the moment is gone. The melody can come to me when I am

18 doing the most boring a task. Once, I had this very monotone job of giving out promotional fliers, it can be quite brain numbing, but for me, I looked forward to going to work as I always came up with song ideas.

My musical mentor Charly Harrison once told me, 'only boring people get bored'. If you're with him, he is always jotting ideas down in whatever he can get his hands on: receipts, toilet paper, etc. He has been very inspirational for me.

Ableton (above) and Reaper (Below) are Saara’s music software of choice.

I always wanted to compose. I had a real urge to make songs, but lacked confidence. The first revelation came after a jolly night a few years back, all of a sudden I started getting up at all hours of the night with inspiration. Some kind of creative channels had been opened and I wasn't petrified anymore. I was fortunate enough to live with a composer, the very talented Charly Harrison (Winner of Best Music, 48h Film Competition Melbourne 2013), who was kind enough to show me the ropes of using Ableton and Reaper. All of a sudden, I was able to use the sound of the drums and the guitar and the bass, all the instruments I had dreamt of but hadn't been able to play.

In my practice, I make my own loops. I add different instruments, recorded sounds and voice to create loops that resonate with my melodic ideas. For the loops, I have recorded birds in the garden, my landlady's pug and dripping liquid amongst others. Sometimes I have a really natural sound to start with but when I run it through sound effects, it turns into something quite different, almost other-wordly.

I normally create individual loops in Ableton and arrange them in Reaper. Ableton is great for trying out new ideas quickly. I find Reaper more organic when it comes to arrangements, you can go 'off the grid' and make slight adjustments to the spacing of the audio clips as well as bringing in sections with completely different timings. I also like having that 2-step process of generating ideas in one program and then arranging them in another. Above all, I find that listening and trusting your intuition of what sounds good is much more pleasing than the program dictating it.

Some think that all music made with computers is somehow less personal, less 'authentic' and less melodic than music created with traditional instruments. I would

19 argue that the computer is just a tool, and shoot me, but I would go as far as saying all instruments are just tools too. It's what you do with it that will give it the soul, the depth and the purpose. One can play a beautiful classical song with a prestigious traditional instrument and it can still sound empty unless the human using it escalates it to a different level. It’s exactly the same with computers.

For me, creating a song is a process of trial and error, it's like going to a park to play. I try out different things, find out what I like and what works with the melodies that I have. The equipment I have is very basic, a small Dell laptop, a little handheld recorder and sometimes I even use the microphone which is inbuilt in the computer.

Photo by Harry Millward.

I have been known to sit in a car recording a vocal- something I have learned from independent film making. If you don't have a studio, a car is an excellent cheap alternative for recording vocals. Although you do need a car first- in my case it was a friendly soul that handed down their old car for me to use. My music is not made on a 'shoe string', I don't even have those, I should say with a bit of a smirk. I sustain myself with acting work, but if I had more funding, I would be able to produce technically better films and music. I keep working diligently, I have a mad drive and I believe that the right opportunities will present themselves soon enough. I am currently in search for a producer and funding for my first feature film.

ASA: Would you tell us a little about your musical inspirations?

Saara: I have always loved melodies. Melody for a song is like a plot for a film. It's what gets you hooked, it's what gives you pleasure or pain, it's what stays with you afterwards.

I like quirky songs. One of my influences has been Bjork and while I don't consiously try and make music similar to hers, some have compared my pieces to hers and that couldn't make me happier. I respect anyone who creates their own work, whether it using traditional instruments or computers.

One of the great Australian musicians I have had the pleasure to work with is Sebastian Jorgensen of Montsalvat. He is a very humble classical guitarist in his 70s,

20 who used to play gigs around England and played at a concert with Jimi Hendrix. He would never tell you that though, but other people will. He has introduced me to the expansive indigenous music and stories of this land as well as other international musicians such as the American drummer Alan Murphy (Village People) and I have been lucky enough to perform with both of them.

Photo by Mark Hillyer.

In all honesty, I can't truly pinpoint where my inspirations are, as I find them organically, where ever they present themselves. I guess it's a process of being open to propositions of life. They are a combination of a vibrant way of being and finding connections and distances between people. I have been fortunate enough to experience a lot of life events, both good and bad. I suppose some of my work is cathartic, I don't think an artist can truly escape that. I hope that eventually my work will manifest things that I believe in: human rights over material values, equality over hedonism, substance over vanity, and all the beautiful grey areas in between the black and white.

ASA: Would you tell us little bit about your background?

Saara: Although I have always loved performing and singing, I didn't have the opportunity to do any formal music studies. State schools in Finland provided basic music, so I learned a bit about theory and did singing in choirs, performed in musicals and got bullied by other kids because I was too 'out there'. When I was nine I directed this play at school and I also played the leading part (of a prostitute).

Another time I remember this field day in kid's art centre, I was eight and we were supposed to compose a song as a group. In the end I was the only one really into it, so I ended up doing the work for everyone. I took all my creative work very seriously from the very beginning.

I would have loved to play the drums or the guitar, but didn't have any accessible to me, and girls weren't invited to bands, so I played the piano that we had in the house. When I started earning my own money, I took singing classes and someone asked me to do an audition for their label. I was too insecure at the time, didn't think I had it in me.

21 Photo by Steve McKenzie from “Greville Bee”.

I did always stay close to the music scene, working at national radio and television shows in Finland. Not many international stars came to Finland, but I interviewed and met some big names of Finland including HIM, the Rasmus and Darude. I loved acting, but couldn't get to study it in Finland, as places were limited (0.014% applicants get accepted and unless you are related to a famous person the chances are next to nil). Eventually I got accepted on a scholarship place in the prestigious Dartington College of Arts and moved to England. In Dartington, collaborations between the different fields were highly encouraged, and although my main practise was acting, I was heavily involved in dance and music also. I had grown in a culture where you were believed to be good in only one thing and one thing only, but I was now in an environment where I was encouraged to work with multi-disciplinary practices. I felt like I had come home with these eccentric and sparkling personalities around me, in the middle of the secluded Devon countryside.

The Dartington spirit of different arts collaborating stayed with me. At the end of the day, it's just different forms of the same imagination expressing itself. With the newly found confidence I went to find accomplishments in many different fields, I've won the award of the best actor at two international film festivals, I've won a bronze award for a feature film screenplay in Hollywood, my short films have gone to screen at many festivals including Toronto, Berlin and San Francisco and I have exhibited paintings. Music was still bubbling under...

Both of my loves, music and film, are mostly male dominated fields. I surely could have chosen an easier path. Somehow I am crazy enough to keep moving forward, because what wouldn't you do for love?

22 Songwriter’s Block: What Do Berklee & James Linderman Say?

Thank you to Jodi Marcum for this article.

“Not long ago, we received an email from a songwriter in response to the question of getting over “songwriter’s block.” But not just any songwriter… this particular songwriter is James Linderman, who lives and works at theharmonyhouse.com, a music lesson, songwriting and recording pre-production facility in Newmarket, Ontario. He teaches guitar, piano and theory as well as contemporary songwriting, in studio, as well as over Skype to students all over the world.

In 2006, James was selected for a 21 member, international, off campus, academic advisory board for The Berklee School of Music, known as Berkleemusic Ambassadors, focusing on adapting Berklee campus courses for online learning and representing and promoting Berklee at music events and conferences.

James’ very succinct answer to the “songwriter’s block” malady was this: The old adage for writers tells them to stop writing and start reading (or, words in = words out). So for songwriters, applying that same idea would be to spend time learning other peoples’ songs (or, chords in = chords out).

According to James, “Writer’s block is a very simple thing to fix in this way and it is an unheard of condition in my students. It takes 2 hours of training to cure for good.”

So I asked James if we could interview him to give all of you some ideas for listening through your songwriter’s block and making your own time and efforts more fruitful in the long run!

Happily, James agreed to the interview – and here’s what I learned:

James, how would you recommend a songwriter overcome writer’s block?

Many songwriting coaches have historically recommend just writing your way out of writer’s block, but there is a trend now to consider this to be an extremely frustrating and ineffective solution. Many schooled songwriters are now being taught to put down the pen and step away from their instruments – and instead of trying to get more output out of the ideas they already have, they are encouraged to refocus by finding new ideas to intake. By refilling the idea tank we give ourselves the greatest

23 chance to have new lyric concepts to write from, some new chords or comping patterns to inspire new melodies, new strumming patterns and fresh production palettes for top-lining. New in = new out.

However, if you feel like you just have to keep writing, you should try the way writer’s block is being eradicated at Berklee College of Music. The approach is based mostly on writing concepts being popularized by lyric writing professor Pat Pattison. Pat is unquestionably the worlds leading authority on lyric writing and is a founding developer of the songwriting department at Berklee.

Pat’s concept is built on the idea that writer’s block is found primarily in artists with an internal or external expectation on the quantity and quality of their creative output. It seems the more a writer wants or needs to be great, and to have lots of elite work, the less they are able to produce that work. The pressure of having every idea that hits a blank page be great right out of the shoot is contrary to the whole process that got the writer to write in the first place. We usually start out with potentially interesting but poorly formed lines, incomplete concepts, and lots of missing content; and then we edit laboriously to get that fractured content into a more complete and consumable form.

The problem of writer’s block comes when we have pressure on us to write better, right now. But our brain decides it does not want to go through the long and tedious edit stage and wants fully formed songs to come out line by line in an orderly and completely efficient manner. Our brain always wants to streamline the process. Writers feel that, as they become more seasoned and more successful, they have earned their ticket out of the edit process. What commonly ensues is a lot of blank pages and a lot of frustration. Professor Pattison’s liberating phrase for anyone suffering from writer’s block is, “I give myself permission to write ‘crap.’”

By giving yourself permission to write ‘crap’, you assure yourself that you will write a lot. And from that quantity will come opportunities to become a more greatly skilled editor as you try to improve all of these low grade ideas. You will also find that occasionally, in all this quantitative writing, you will see a sudden and brief spike in quality. So it is sort of like the saying, “you cannot win if you do not play.” You cannot become a better writer if you stare at a blank page and do not accept the ideas that are at hand right now. The full quote is, “Crap makes great fertilizer and great fertilizer eventually grows beautiful flowers.”

How important is the song’s title?

Song titles are your listeners’ way of identifying your song. Like when we meet people and immediately want to know what to call them, songs use their title as a non-musical name tag. The title should hold all of the songs essential DNA (I think all DNA might be considered essential actually, but science is not my subject so… not completely sure). The best place to pick the title from is often the last line of the chorus. The second best choice is commonly the first line of the chorus.

There are interesting non conventional choices for titling your song, like a name of a person, place or thing (noun), when that word does not actually appear in the lyric content or is perhaps buried in the verse content somewhere. This can work well if all of the other content of the lyrics can then be framed by the listener, to appear to be all about that person, place or thing. The best way to find the obvious and not

24 “over thought” title of your song is to play your song for a small child and ask them what they would call it. Another way is to play it at your next open mic night and then see what people call it at the end of the night as you are packing up.

Is there a way to “calculate” the marketable merits of a song?

Some songs seem to spring out of nowhere and become incredibly popular with little evidence as to why. I think this is a phenomenon where the contemporary use of the word “viral” seems to fit most appropriately. However, like most viruses we should be compelled to see where they start, and maybe even more importantly, how they spread.

All popular songs share three traits that can be seen from a theoretical or clinical view.

The first is that the song has been written for a specific listening demographic instead of the writer attempting to make the song generically likeable. When a writer decides to (or is built to) write for a particular market, the fans of that kind of song see that their needs and wants have been considered and they are now conveniently listening to a piece of art that has been crafted specifically to meet those needs. When a middle aged person bemoans that the music on the radio is dreadful, I can’t seem to help myself from reminding them they are no longer in the demographic radio is trying to engage. Figure out who you want to like your song. Write backwards from your image of that person. Then you will have earned a fan even before the pen hits the page.

The second trait all popular songs share is that they all have groove… we could even call it swagger. They have all been written and recorded to inspire listeners to tap their toe or shift their hip bones to the first and third or second and forth beats of the bar. By getting a performance to have an infectious and style appropriate “pocket,” the listener can be transported from being a discerning critic of the other elements of the song to becoming a blissfully unaware interpretive dancer or air drummer. A song with perhaps very few other merits gets a lot of love because of it. Make sure your songs are performed and recorded in the pocket (in time), and to generally grow this skill taller, make friends with a metronome.

The third element that all popular songs share is not just good time but also good timing. All songs find their listeners… some songs find a few fans and some find a lot – but if they are listened to at all, they are always the next step for the artist and the listener. When a post punk band takes the world by storm it is commonly because there is a fairly large demographic of listeners who have just gotten tired of, say, emo singers with acoustic guitars and hair in their eyes. Those listeners, at that very millisecond, are desperately craving the sonic awesomeness of a big juicy power chord from a Les Paul guitar out of a Marshall amplifier. Not to scare all purveyors of Emo folk, most of those listeners will be back six months to a year later to cry into their pillows over any song about how you don’t feel good about yourselves. In my generation that song was “Yesterday” by The Beatles. It encompassed all the regret I could muster as an 11 year old boy. Timing was, and still is, everything.

25 What are some common mistakes you see beginning songwriters make? What advice do you have for avoiding these mistakes?

Many seasoned music creators refer to beginner songwriter syndrome as, “Songs in the key of me.” And so the biggest rookie error is to write all of your songs displaying your personal inner dialogue and using songwriting as inexpensive but also somewhat indulgent therapy. Generally, songs stand a much better chance to be likeable if they are more about life than strictly about the writer’s life.

Rosanne Cash stopped writing from her inner dialogue and suddenly produced some of the best songs she had written in a long time. She merely found elements of life around her that were more interesting and engaging than what she was experiencing within the context of her own emotions — and her emotional history had already been well documented in her previous recordings. Some writers get writer’s block from simply running out of opinion. They still write from an emotional response, but not always from a purely singular experiential perspective. It is also good to remember that a library has two sections: fiction and non-fiction. So when wanting to break out of the beginner phase of writing, it is good to consider that great artists never let the truth get in the way of stating a fact, but they also never let a fact interfere with telling the truth. This perspective tends to mature writers quickly and is another one of Pat Pattison’s core concepts.

There are technical elements to breaking beyond the rookie realm as a songwriter. One valuable technique is to use imperfect rhymes (moon/room) primarily in the verses, and perfect rhymes (moon/June) in the choruses. This helps make the verses more conversational and the choruses easier for the listener to sing along with… a prominent feature in the literal definition of the word “chorus.”

Beginning songwriters should determine what element (lyric, melody, harmony) is their strength, and what are their weaknesses. Then they should strengthen the weaknesses with instruction. They should also seek out collaborators that are strong in their weaker areas so they can get better work out earlier in their development. As well, you can learn from those writers who have those elite skill sets and talents already in place. Collaboration should be more complimentary than competitive and novice writers can gain a great deal of ground by adapting to that.

So, what are some key tips or advice you have for songwriters?

Everyone seems to love to passionately tell artists to be themselves, and in the same breath also impress on them that they have to be insanely great (the second statement often made in direct contrast to the reality of the first). How to be great is to not be so attached to the concept of always being yourself. Or more precisely, to grow a broader sense of yourself and what you are capable and willing to try, artistically.

All great art includes some element of risk and part of that risk is to expand how you define yourself today. The Beatles got tired of being The Beatles and so became Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and made a pretty good album. Artists like Sting, Elton John and Pink do not even use their own names and yet all we hear is the constant mantra of “be yourself… be yourself… be yourself.”

26 Also, I find it bewildering when artists tell me they feel they need to “go and find themselves.” I will often reframe that as “you should stay right where you are and work on continuing to create yourself.” Being an artist is a blue collar job. So to become better at it, the qualities of being a hard worker, being diligent… but also patient… need to be self defining. Do the hard work of making you.

Being willing to build yourself rather than believing you can somehow locate yourself in an exotic remote setting seems like a valuable perspective shift. Writing is an investment-based activity; so if you primarily write lyrics, you should read a lot since “words in = words out.”

If you work mostly on the music part of songs, learning theory and becoming proficient on your instrument is essential. Paul Simon was, and still is, a great songwriter with a formidable skill at playing the guitar. And yet he has taken guitar lessons his entire career.

Writing should be fun. But it often isn’t. So the last tip would be to consider writing like any job with good days and not so good days. But consider making yourself sit at the desk and do the work set before you, regardless of how you feel, regardless of where the process leads you, and regardless of the outcome.

I’m glad James shared his insights with us at Onstage Success! His credits are extensive. James co-wrote a song in 2004 that was on hold for Bonnie Raitt called “Completely Yours”, and co-wrote “Lead Me There” for Stephanie Israelson, which received airplay in the UK and the US and on Canadian Christian radio, ranked in the top 50 songs for overall airplay in 2006 and stayed in the Top 10 through most of 2007. James wrote “Life is Made for This” for recording artist Andy Taylor which charted consistently across Canada in the top 10 through 2007 and 2008. In 2010 he wrote the single “I Run to You” for Miranda Fox. James also co-wrote “Home” with Katie Workman which was signed to a single song publishing deal with Next Number One in Nashville.

In addition, James is an internationally known guest speaker and featured columnist throughout the industry. To contact him directly, you can email him at [email protected] or [email protected].”

Thank you, Jodi, for this article.

27 Sponsors Profiles:

ASA Sponsor, Theo’s Music of West Leederville, Perth, WA is celebrating 50 years in the business.

Since 1965, Theo’s Music has supplied Australia and beyond with quality new and second hand musical instruments and accessories. Theo’s has developed into one of the best music stores in Australia, not to mention the best music store in Perth. They have a great range of acoustic guitars, electric guitars, bass guitars, amps, drums, flutes, clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, trombones, tubas, euphoniums, cornets, violins, violas, cellos, double basses as well as many of the rarer instruments like oboes, bassoons, bass clarinets, mandolins, banjos, bagpipes.

Theo’s Music has the best print music range in Perth as well as a great range of single sheet music in Perth. We are able to supply anywhere in Australia or beyond with our online shopping cart. Everything listed online is generally in stock and can be supplied within a week Australia wide.

Founded by professional Jazz musician Theo Henderson and now run by his son Miles Henderson. Theo’s Music remains one of Western Australia’s oldest musical establishments and continues to provide exceptional service to all music lovers.

28 Songwriters’ Fighting Fund

In the last edition of The Australian Songwriter, we told Allan Caswell’s story of his battle with Sony ATV, over the royalties for his song, “On The Inside”.

Singer/songwriter, Nia Roberston has set up the Songwriters’ Fighting Fund.

Allan lost his case against Sony ATV but has now lodged an appeal.

Here are Allan Caswell’s comments:

“We lost the case … but we are appealing because if we don’t …

1. A publishing contract will, in the future, if this decision is allowed to stand, offer neither protection nor income, the two reasons most writers sign publishing contracts.

2. It will allow a publisher to buy a catalogue, and rape the money out of it with no obligation to the writer.

3. Sony will slither out of their obligations to their writers any time they want to.

As it stands, I am liable for Sony’s court costs (about $700,000) … If we lose the appeal my debts will rise to close to $1,000,000 … basically I have nothing to lose.

We need to raise $10, 000 to cover the cost of the appeal. The case has already cost us thousands of dollars but we can’t stop now.

You can support us by buying the “Christmas In Dixie/ On The Inside” Medley on iTunes, buying an album, sharing the video on YouTube, or pre-ordering the album “Sometimes When You Lose You Win”, which will be released in the next few weeks (now released- ed.). Anyone contributing $25 or more will be given an Allan Caswell album or a pre order of the new album. All the money contributed will be paid directly into a trust account to enable my lawyers to run the appeal.

My deepest thanks go to my friend Nia Robertson for setting up Songwriter’s Fighting Fund and directing all the funds to my lawyers.”

29 ASA Member Profile: Glen Naylor

ASA member, Glen Naylor, is a songwriter from Bright, VIC, who has been a regular entrant and finalist in the Australian Songwriting Contest.

Here is Glen’s story in her own words:

“In 2008, as a first time entrant into any competition, I had three entries in the Top 25 in the Australian Songwriting Contest, Lyrics category, and one came in at number ten. Once I picked myself up off the floor, I decided that I should find a co-writer, and fortunately for me, I stumbled across Chris Wilson in Melbourne. We have been working together ever since.

Chris and I have been delighted to make the shortlist each year in the ASA contest, seven categories, one year. We were honoured to receive a ‘Certificate of Commendation’ for fine writing skills from the ASA. In January this year we were blown away to win ‘The Songwriter’s Salute Award’ in Tamworth for Children’s Song Of The Year.

On a personal note, my day to day life is extremely busy. My husband is a T.P.I. (totally permanently incapacitated) war veteran, for whom I have cared for many years. We have raised our beautiful grandson from a tiny baby. He is my inspiration, especially for the Aussie kid’s songs and we have another four beautiful grandchildren.

I started writing to ‘escape’ the busy-ness of my days, and I wanted to do something creative and satisfying for myself, but it backfired and I became busier, but I have loved the ride and have enjoyed every moment. I became so passionate that I started writing prolifically and, subsequently, this turned my life upside down in a great way. It has been surreal to have experienced the many wonderful things that have happened over the last few years: traveling to places I may otherwise not have gone to and meeting great artists and other people in the music business. This all arose from my first entries into the ASA.

Chris and I have written many songs in different genres and all have been very well received in Australia and in the U.S. I went to Nashville three years ago to do several radio interviews in various parts of the U.S. but I ended up doing them all from Nashville. Then Chris and I went back a couple of years ago because Robert Venable had chosen one of our songs to be produced by him. Robert produced/engineered

30 Aussie rock band INXS and the music for Glee, he was so friendly and hospitable he even picked us up from our hotel.

Then one morning I opened an email from Mike Pinder (Moody Blues) and I almost fell off my chair. Mike said that he loved all of our songs and made the comment “I expect to see your name in lights one day.” What a blast, I was over the moon!

Photos: (Above) Glen and the other finalists at the 2011 National Songwriting Awards.

(Below) Glen’s songwriting partner, Chris Wilson.

We have some great mates in the U.S now. Gary Allen in Nashville has become a very good friend and not so long ago he recorded with Eric Clapton and the late JJ Cale.

Gary was in the Charlie Daniels Band and has played with the Rolling stones, Bruce Springsteen and many others. Also, we have been working with Gene Foley of www.foleyentertainment.com. Gene is a highly respected music executive. He is known in the U.S. as the man with the golden ear. He too loves our songs, awesome! Gene met us for lunch in New York and he is an absolute delight. We are still working with him. We found all the Americans to be warm and welcoming.

Chris is a very talented musician who plays many instruments. I am lucky to work with an artist who has so much talent and experience in the music industry. We work well together and respect the others view and I hope this collaboration continues for a long time. I have slowed down writing this year due to commitments however, there is a lot on the back burner.

The moral of this story is, you are never too old to create no matter what your circumstances are and I must say great things can happen and if along the way you find success and satisfaction what a bonus!

This old Nana from the bush has been on a fantastic journey, thanks to the ASA.”

31 ASA Member Profile: Steve McNaughton

Australian artist, Steve McNaughton, has earned high praise as one of Sydney’s best contemporary rock songwriters.

His music varies from solid radio- friendly hooks, to passionate, upfront and personal material. He has been writing songs for over 20 years and has been performing with different artists and bands around Sydney for nearly as many.

In 1992, Steve first received recognition when his single "Homecoming (You've Come Back Home)" debuted on the ABC and Australian commercial radio. Since then, a further 6 compositions have hit the airwaves not only in Australia but also throughout Europe, United States and South America.

After releasing several singles on the Big Back Yard compilation CDs, Steve came to the music industry’s attention via distribution to music festivals in Midem France and Popkomm in Germany. Radio stations in the USA, Germany and New Zealand then picked up on Steve's songs, "Stalingrad Still Stands" and "Hold Me Tonight".

The songs were inspired by a major battle of the Second World War and by UN soldiers in Bosnia respectively. This later lead to "Stalingrad Still Stands" holding down the top spot of the ‘Ison Live Radio International Top 50 Chart’ for several weeks and ‘Hold Me Tonight’ peaking at number 6.

This was followed up by the launch of his first album “Hardly Softly Rock” in 1999 which featured a duet with legendary Aussie rocker John Swan. With a blend of solid rock and sweeter U.S. West coast rock, this album quickly sold out and was replaced by an E.P. Sydney Olympic City, released for the 2000 Olympic Games.

The lead tracks, “Sydney, You’re So Beautiful” and “Excellence From Every Land”, received airplay from visiting international television networks and overseas airplay, well after the games had finished.

Steve McNaughton’s second album, and third CD, is probably his best to date, with songs that encompass solid radio-friendly hooks, and some definite groove and attitude! The opening title-track ‘Storm Chaser’ was inspired by Scott Currens and other American storm chasers. It is a high energy rock song that fully captures the fury of nature when the plains turn violent across the United States’ Mid-West.

32

Skope TV and Radio magazine have been full of praise for this album and provide the following glowing tribute: “Steve McNaughton’s Storm Chaser is an earth moving experience. If you turn on the CD and close your eyes you could almost mistake his vocals for the legendary Elvis Costello. There seems to be a clear influence from that era. The CD is full of up tempo contagious tunes. The instrumentation is a good companion to solid, well written lyrics and the production takes some interesting turns with killer background vocals that really drive a couple of the songs”.

Steve McNaughton’s ability as a consummate songwriter and unique vocalist are fully portrayed in the new direction he takes his music, distinctly into crossover country yet still retaining a crisp pop edge.

With a repertoire of over 50 original songs and 3 albums behind him, spanning the rock and pop genres, Steve has now taken a big leap into the contemporary country scene. Using West Coast Artists, some Americana and Nashville influences, for inspiration, the result is a slick album of Crossover Country entitled “Eagles Aloft” about to be released through CD Baby.

This album features a number of co-writes with Australian and U.S. writers the best of which seem to come from his main collaborator James Stewart Keene. The “Eagles Aloft” has already received a five star rating and an exceptional review from The Examiner.com in Nashville Tennessee!

33 Artist Achievements - Steve McNaughton

 Songs ‘Dreaming’, ‘Didn’t Mean It’ and ‘Gimme Something’, received regular airplay on Midnight Special Blues radio throughout 2010 to 2012.

 Songs ‘Crawl Before You Walk’ and ‘Didn’t Mean It’ selected for Radio U.K. International Showcase Hour.

 Steve was Energy Theory Management, Artist Pick of the Week Feb to April 2010

 ‘Storm Chaser’, ‘Crawl Before You Walk’ and ‘Dreaming,’ all selected by Audio Font for Movie and Television Licensing in 2010 and 2011.

 ‘Crawl before you walk’ was licensed by United Entertainment and Media for U.K. Clothing retail stores in 2010

 Studio 111 Records- Roster Expansion selected ‘Storm Chaser’ and ‘Dreaming’ in 2010

 Semi-finalist in the U.K. Song writing Contest for ‘Crawl Before You Walk’ in 2009 and with ‘Start Again’ in 2010.

 Steve was a featured artist for Dream Media Enterprises for January 2011

 Finalist with ‘When You’ve got it good’ in the Country Music Division of the Australian Song writing Society in 2012

 Excellent album review for “Hardly softly rock” from Songwriting Society of Australia

 Excellent album reviews for “Storm Chaser” from Songwriting Society of Australia, Skope Radio and T.V. Magazine and Wildy’s World

-0-

34 Members News And Information

1. 2014 Australian Songwriting Contest Update

The judges are still hard at work judging the entries in the 2014 Australian Songwriting Contest.

Short-listed entrants will be notified within the next week. The names of the Top 30 Category finalists will be placed on the ASA website shortly after.

2. New ASA Regional Co-Ordinator for Canberra ACT: Kieran Roberts

Former ASA President, and ASA Life Member, Kieran Roberts, has been appointed as the new ASA Regional Co- Ordinator for Canberra ACT. Kieran has a wealth of experience in songwriting and performing and will be a great addition to the ASA’s Regional Co- Ordinators team.

We’ll keep you posted on details of Kieran’s upcoming Wax Lyrical performance nights in Canberra.

3. New ASA Regional Co-Ordinator for The NSW Northern Rivers Region

Wendy J Ford has been appointed as the new ASA Regional Co- Ordinator for the NSW Northern Rivers Region.

Wendy is a former President of the Songwriting Society of Australia and has been a music teacher for over ten years

We’ll let everyone know once Wendy’s Wax Lyrical open-mic nights commence.

35 4. Wax Lyrical Open-Mic. Nights Commence On The NSW Central Coast

New ASA Regional Co-Ordinator, Kerrie Garside, has commenced monthly Wax Lyrical nights on the NSW Central Coast. The first one was held on Monday 11 August 2014.

Details of the events are:

Venue: Settlers Tavern, 2 Hely Street Gosford NSW.

Dates: 2nd Monday of each month

Time: Commencing 7.30 pm.

Kerrie can be contacted at [email protected] or on 0407 926 453.

The next Central Coast NSW Wax Lyrical will be held on Monday 13 October 2014.

5. Wax Lyrical Open-Mic. Nights in Sydney NSW

The remaining dates for Sydney Wax Lyrical Nights this year are 14 October 2014 and 11 November 2014.

Should you wish to perform your original works at these events, please contact ASA Sydney Regional Co- Ordinator, Mark Ellis, on [email protected] or on 0412 252 588. Photo: ASA members, Brothers 3.

The venue is the Bald Face Stag Hotel, 345 Parramatta Road Leichhardt. The events kick off at 7.30 pm and finish around 9.30 pm. All styles and genres are welcome, as are solo artists, duos and bands.

There is a fair bit of demand for available spots most nights so performance slots are usually fully pre-booked. However there are often last minute cancellations and no- shows. So, if you drop in on the night, Mark will do his best to fit you in.

36 Original material only is to be played, in an allocated fifteen minutes of performance time (or 3 songs). The event is professionally hosted and attention is paid to achieving quality audio and encouragement of audience response.

Mark reports that ASA members, Brothers 3, have performed twice at Wax Lyrical Nights and have impressed everyone with their great performances and vocal harmonies. It certainly seems to be working for them on X-Factor.

6. New Venue: Wax Lyrical Open-Mic. Nights in Brisbane QLD

ASA Brisbane QLD Regional Co-Ordinator, Hugh Brown, reports that the new venue for Brisbane QLD Wax Lyricals went well in September and will be the venue for October and into the foreseeable future.

Details are:

Venue: The Retro Bar, 2071 Moggill Road, Kenmore QLD.

Details: Every second Tuesday of the month.

Contact: For further information, contact Hugh on 0409 622 395 or email him on [email protected].

7. Wax Lyrical Open-Mic. Nights in Perth WA

ASA Western Australia Regional Co-Ordinator, Mike Cardy, is giving artists the opportunity to have their performances recorded at Wax Lyrical events, as a free service. The recordings are then made available to artists in one of three forms: as one continual recording; song by song with audience interaction; and on an edited song by song basis.

Wax Lyrical nights are held at The Elephant and Wheelbarrow, 53-55 Lake Street, Northbridge WA, on the first Tuesday of each month commencing 7.30 pm.

For further information, please contact either Mike Cardy on 0413 677 084 or Makk Eenhoorn on 0412 096 435.

37 8. Get On The Support Act Bandwagon!

Support Act needs your help.

Support Act is a charity, unique in Australia, providing financial relief to music professionals facing illness, injury or some other life crisis.

Support Act helps music professionals in all fields of the industry including singers, songwriters, composers, musicians, roadies, techies, managers, lighting techs and everyone in between.

Support Act is endeavouring to raise $100,000 for its charitable work through Pozible (http://www.pozible.com/project/185629) by 30 September 2014.

The Bandwagon Pozible page will have closed by the time that you read this notice, however donations can still be given via the Support Act website at http://supportact.org.au/give-help/.

9. Access Arts Announces New Award

Access Arts Inc. has launched a new $10,000 Award for Queensland artists with disability.

Access Arts Achievement Award is open to any Queensland artist, arts worker or producer with disability working in any art form who is aged 18 years or over and is an Australian citizen or permanent resident. The Award-winner will be selected on the artistic merit, innovation and viability of their project proposal.

The judges are Davida Allen, 1986 Archibald Prize Winner; Janelle Colquhoun, opera/jazz singer, producer and agent; Liz Crawford, National Practice Leader KPMG; Robert Hoge, author and Access Arts Board Member; and Chris Kohn, Artistic Director and CEO of La Boite Theatre Company.

38 This is the first year of the $10,000 Award which will continue for a further 4 years, made possible by generous donation from Access Arts Life Member, singer-song- writer Peter Vance. Criteria and application forms for the Access Arts Achievement Award will be available from Friday 19 September, and entries will close at midnight on Saturday 18 October 2014.

The Award-winner will be announced at Access Arts’ Community Showcase, 2-5pm on Saturday 29 November 2014, at Bemac, Kangaroo Point.

For further information on the Award, how to apply and the selection criteria visit accessarts.org.au.

10. The PPCA - Australia Council Recording Artist Grant

Established in 1969, Phonographic Performance Company of Australia Limited (PPCA) is a national, non-government, non-profit organisation that represents the interest of record companies and Australian recording artists.

The PPCA - Australia Council Recording Artist Grant is a partnership between the Australia Council and PPCA to support Australian artists to create new sound recordings.

You may apply for any costs primarily associated with the creation of a sound recording, which may also involve some costs associated with the promotion of that recording.

The successful applicants of the 2013 grants included: Courtney Barnett, The Grigoryan Brothers, Lance Ferguson (from The Bamboos), Ben Salter and Ainslie Wills, who have all used their funds to record new projects.

Dan Rosen, PPCA Chief Executive Officer said “We are really pleased to be able to offer these grants again, and contribute to the diversity of Australian music. The response to last year’s initiative was incredibly strong and a great indication of the quality of our recording artists. We look forward to working with the Australia Council again to help more local artists realise their musical ambition.”

Andy Rantzen, Acting Director Music, Australia Council added “We’re delighted to partner again with the PPCA on this initiative. These grants provide a much needed opportunity for Australian musicians, and this partnership enables us to support the recording of new, high quality Australian work”.

For more information including how to apply, visit Australia Council.

39 11. Artists For Studios of Scenic Rim QLD Wanted

Scenic Rim Regional Council is calling for applications for the 2015 round of Studios of the Scenic Rim from artists and art collectives, as well as tourist operators, businesses and organisations within the Scenic Rim region wishing to secure an artist as an Artist-In-Residence during the 2015 round of Open Studios.

Studios & Cultural Trails of the Scenic Rim is a creative industry + cultural tourism initiative presented by Scenic Rim Regional Council. The program, now in its seventh round, operates annually across trail areas within the Scenic Rim region and encourages engagement with the arts through visits to artist’s studios.

In 2015, Studios will be open in the month of May across the Scenic Rim and at other times by appointment. Most of the work on display is for sale with many artists also offering workshops, demonstrations and other programs.

Studios of the Scenic Rim has been developed with support from RADF, and the ongoing input and evaluation of visitors, artists and representatives in the creative industry and cultural tourism sector.

Artists residing within the Scenic Rim region can apply to open their own studio (as an INDIVIDUAL ARTIST), join other artists (as a COLLECTIVE) or exhibit or perform their work at a different location as an ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Artists residing outside the region wishing to participate in the Studios program can apply as ARTIST IN RESIDENCE based at a venue within the Scenic Rim. Artists in residence arrangements are to be made by the artist directly with the venue, or the venue direct with the artist.

Artists participating are not limited to visual artists. Artists may include performers across all genres, musicians, writers and film makers.The onus being on the capability to provide visitors and participants with an engaging experience and insight into artmaking in your chosen media.

Proposed Dates for Studios in 2015 Beaudesert 2 & 3 May Lost World Valley 10 May Tamborine Mountain 16 & 17 May Boonah & District 23 & 24 May Canungra - Beechmont 30 & 31 May

Applications close 13 October. For more information, visit their website.

40 12. Accelerate and Win $10,000 and More

Mitsubishi has opened a new competition called Accelerate to create a piece of music that can express how people feel when they drive their cars. You don’t need to mention Mitsubishi or driving directly. You just need to compose a tune that evokes the feeling of moments that cars make possible.

The major prize winner will receive $10,000, as well as additional studio time in one of the best sound facilities in your home state to help you develop a musical project dear to your heart.

You’ll have an opportunity for national exposure through one of Australia’s largest advertisers via their marketing communications. You or your band's name could be on the lips of the whole country, but it doesn’t end there.

There will also be 3 Runner-Up Prizes worth $1,000 each, which will be chosen by a panel of experts comprised of a mix of music industry professionals and the Mitsubishi Motors Team.

For more information visit acceleratemusic.com.au.

Entries close on 12 October 2014.

13. Submissions open for 2015 Indent Partnership Grant

Applications are open for the 2015 Indent Partnership Grants program, developed for young people to stage youth music events.

Funded by ArtsNSW, this grant falls under two categories: The Grass Roots Grant, aimed at entry-level events like band comps, open-mic and band nights, it’s set at a maximum of $2,500 and The Event Development Grants, available to those who successfully acquitted a Grass Roots Grant in 2014. Event Development Grants are for those looking to engage the professional music industry; it’s set at a maximum of $5,000.

In January this year Indent gave 12 applicants the $2,500 Grass Roots Grant and six teams the $5,000 Event Development Grants.

Applications must be postmarked and submitted by 5pm Friday October 24.

Indent was set up in 2000 to help young people aged 13 – 25 in NSW access drug and alcohol free all-ages entertainment.

41 The Load Out

We would like to pose a question to all of the lyricists out there: How much are your lyrics worth?

The sum of $US2.045 million was paid recently at auction for an early draft of the lyrics for Bob Dylan’s groundbreaking 1965 song “Like A Rolling Stone”, making it a record for Sotheby's auction house.

The previous record was set in 2010 when John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics for “A Day in the Life” sold for $US1.2 million.

The draft, on four sheets of hotel stationery, is one of several believed to have been part of the creation of the song during a prolific songwriting burst that year, but the only one assumed to have survived.

Among the doodles and other scribblings, this draft features some lines not used in the final recording: references to Al Capone and rhymes for the word feel (kneel, deal and real) is a snatch of “dry vermouth/You’ll tell the truth” which might tie in with what some have seen as the central concept of the song: a tearing down of the conceits of a socialite forced to live in the real world.

Image: Bob Dylan’s hand-written lyrics to “Like A Rolling Stone”.

Regularly cited as one of the greatest songs of all time, Like A Rolling Stone also is seen as heralding the creation of the more serious, art-focused and adult genre “rock” as an outgrowth of the youthful and simpler rock’n’roll. And along the way it cemented Dylan’s position in 1965 as the premier songwriter across all music genres, not just folk from where he’d emerged three years earlier.

It is not clear whether this buyer also bought another Dylan lyric offered at Sotheby’s, a handwritten page of the final draft of “A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall”, that went under the hammer for $US485,000, or a portrait of Dylan by Joni Mitchell.

42 Official Sponsors of the Australian Songwriting Contest

The ASA would like to acknowledge the assistance of all of its sponsors for supporting us in our activities throughout the year. The ASA is a not-for-profit association and could not undertake its activities without the assistance of its valued sponsors.

We would encourage ASA Members to use the services of our sponsors wherever possible.

43

Bachelor of Popular Music

44 Dynamic Music

45

KG International

MMS Retail

CMC Productions

46 About Us

The Australian Songwriters Association Inc. is a national, not-for-profit, member organisation dedicated to the support of songwriters and their art, by providing avenues for encouragement and education of developing Australian songwriters, and recognition and promotion of our accomplished members.

Aims of the Association

To celebrate the art of songwriting;

To assist and encourage developing Australian songwriters;

To provide information and general advice to members;

To create performance opportunities for members;

To aid the professional development of members;

To enable members to meet and/or exchange ideas and information

To facilitate member transition into the established music industry;

To facilitate delivery of member services at a National, State and Regional level;

To salute our best songwriters at major industry events such as our National Awards Night.

History of the ASA

The Association was founded in Melbourne VIC in August 1979 by the late Tom Louch (1932-1998) and the late Rudy Brandsma (1944-1983), who saw the need for an organisation that would bring Australian songwriters together.

Today the Association has a vibrant membership Australia-wide and enjoys an established and respected role within the music industry.

The ASA’s membership is diverse and embraces and explores all genres of music.

Contact Us

Mail: Locked Bag 18/178 Newtown NSW 2042 Australia

Phone/Fax: (02) 9516 4960

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.asai.org.au

Facebook: www.facebook.com/asamusicians www.facebook.com/australiansongwritersassociation

Youtube: www.youtube.com/austsongwriters

47 Patron: Glenn A Baker

Life Members: Tom Louch, Rudy Brandsma, Russell Zimmer, Dominic Crea, Marie Murphy, Colleen Zulian, Alex Bialocki, Brian Henderson Ward, Kieran Roberts.

Directors:

Denny Burgess Chairman

Alan Gilmour Vice Chairman, Public Officer, Financial Officer, Online Content Editor and Editor of The Australian Songwriter magazine

Clare Burgess Director and Secretary

Ben Patis Director and Manager of Regional Co-Ordinators

Regional Co-Ordinators

Trevor Shard Melbourne VIC [email protected]

Pete Sheen Ballarat VIC [email protected]

Matt Sertori Hobart TAS [email protected]

Mark Ellis Sydney NSW [email protected]

Chris Whitington Newcastle NSW [email protected]

Kerrie Garside Central Coast NSW [email protected]

Wendy J Ford Northern Rivers NSW [email protected]

Mike Cardy Perth WA [email protected]

Melinda J Wells Rural & Regional QLD [email protected]

Hugh Brown Brisbane QLD [email protected]

Johnny Dee Bribie Island QLD [email protected]

Angelo Pash Adelaide SA [email protected]

Kieran Roberts Canberra ACT [email protected]

APRA/ASA Australian Songwriter of the Year 2013:

Jacques Mario Gentil (VIC)

Rudy Brandsma Award Winner 2013:

Dani Karis (NSW)

PPCA Live Performance Award Winner 2013:

Roy Mackonkie (NT)

48 Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame:

2004: Harry Vanda, George Young & Stevie Wright (The Easybeats)

2005: Russell Morris

2006: Glenn Shorrock, Beeb Birtles & Graeham Goble (LRB)

2007: Brian Cadd

2008: Doc Neeson, John Brewster & Rick Brewster (The Angels)

2009: Ross Wilson (Daddy Cool, Mondo Rock)

2010: Richard Clapton

2011: Steve Kilbey (The Church)

2012: Don Walker (Cold Chisel)

2013: Garth Porter (Sherbet)

Australian Songwriting Contest Award Winners 2013:

Luke Vassella (NSW) (Australia)

Jacques Mario Gentil & Karen Guymer (VIC) (Ballad)

Skii Harvey (NSW) (Contemporary Pop/Dance)

Jason Greenwood (VIC) (Country)

Andy Mac (NSW) and Troy White (VIC) (Folk/Acoustic)

Nick Charles (VIC) (Instrumental)

Alex Tobin & Neil Devereaux (NSW/Canada) (International)

Jim Fahey (NSW) (Lyrics)

Francesca de Valence (QLD) (Open)

Roy Mackonkie (NT) (Rock/Indie)

Jacques Mario Gentil (VIC) (Spiritual)

Kathy Prosser (ACT) (Songs For Children)

Kaitlyn Thomas (VIC) (Youth)

This publication is © 2014 by The Australian Songwriters Association Inc., ABN 12 140 838 710, and may not be re-used without permission. The views expressed in this magazine are the views of the writers and may not necessarily reflect the views of the ASA. The ASA acknowledges and thanks all sources from which the information for this magazine was obtained.

49